The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has laid down some important conditions for the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) proposed initial public offering (IPO), reports said on Monday.
Under the conditions, the NSE must make its system glitch-free, enhance its technological infrastructure, improve its corporate governance structure, and resolve all pending legal matters, the reports added.
According to Zee Business, the NSE had filed its draft papers for the IPO with SEBI in December 2016, with a plan to raise ₹10,000 crore from the public issue, which was planned as a complete offer-for-sale (OFS), and under which the existing shareholders would sell their respective NSE shares.
Over the next few years, however, the stock exchange’s plan kept running into obstacles, as the exchange got embroiled in corporate governance-related issues, ranging from a former executive’s role in a 2015 scam.
In 2020, Vikram Limaye, NSE’s then MD and CEO, told PTI: “We have approached SEBI to seek its approval for the IPO, and after that, we will start the process of appointing merchant bankers, who will help the exchange file draft prospects for the IPO.”
Meanwhile, at an event earlier this year, Ashishkumar Chauhan, the exchange’s MD and CEO, had urged the capital market regulator to have ‘confidence in our processes.’
“Going ahead, as the number of investors in India doubles or triples from 7.5 crore currently, SEBI needs to have confidence in our processes, technology and intentions. As and when SEBI becomes more comfortable, they will tell us to apply (for IPO) and we will go ahead,” Chauhan had said.
